


Midnight Life

by orphan_account



Series: Midnight Life [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi, Occasionally with drawings, Stabdads AU, Weird gender bender story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-01
Updated: 2012-05-31
Packaged: 2017-11-04 15:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/395521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Normally you love the color red. It is the best color in the world, the tastiest too. Even before you went blind you loved that color, and it's probably the only thing you really miss about your sight. </p><p>You normally love the color red.</p><p>Except right now you absolutely hate it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Too Much of a Good Thing from a Wrong Place

Your name is TERENI PYROPE and you normally love the color red. 

It is the best color in the world, the tastiest too. Even before you went blind you loved that color, and it's probably the only thing you really miss about your sight. 

You normally love the color red.

Except right now you absolutely hate it.

You hate it because it's making your throat stick to itself while your own teal blood is rushing your ears, drowning out the other screams and shouts of your friends. You think you hear your brother screaming some profanities at the culprit, but right now you're too deep in shock to really recognize it. 

It happened so fast, you're still not sure what happened. One moment you and your brother were meeting up with your friends at the mall, next second there's candy red blood splattered everywhere. You can feel the specks of blood drying on your face. There's even more on the floor, a little pool of candy red liqiud forming around you, soaking through your pants. It's all over your hands and arms from holding her, desperately trying to keep her from slipping away, even as you felt her heart slow and her breath weaken.

Your name is TERENI PYROPE, and your flush-crush/girlfriend KARKET VANTAS...has just been shot.

And you think she's dying.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat FINALLY catches a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So I started this Ask Blog where you can ask about the characters and stuff. I'll even draw pictures and shit. Here's the address: http://askthemidnightlifekids.tumblr.com/

**Be Karket**

You are Karket Vantas and you are in a very plain white room. 

And you don't know how you got here.

Actually is it even a room? You can't even see walls, it's like an endless plain of white. No walls, no ceiling, there's only one thing you can see that isn't white. It's a man, you think, and he's wearing a big long black cloak, he has his back to you as you approach him. Your foot [steps](../../405660) echo as you walk, despite the lack of walls to reverberate from.  

"Hello?" You say cautiously.

"Greetings," The man said, "Would you like some tea?"

He turns around to face you. You gasp and stumble backwards.

His face is a skull.

And he has a scythe.

"Don't be alarmed." He said, "It's quite alright. I am Death."

Death. You're talking to Death...

That...can only mean one thing.

You feel your breath hitch as you slowly look down. There, on your chest, just above you overlarge neckline that hung off your shoulder...was a big, candy red blotch of blood. 

"I'm dead." You choke out, tears filling your eyes as the realization hits you. You slump to your knees and stare at the white ground. You don't even have a shadow, and the red tinted tears that should be hitting the ground disappear before they can hit. 

You remember going to the mall...you remember the gunshot, the people screaming, Tereni holding you, June crying, Vrisko swearing...

And now you're here.

With Death.

"There, there." He says, patting your head in between your horns. "It's alright."

"Alright?!" You snap, smacking his hand away as you glare at him fiercely, like it was his fault that you were now dead. Grief gives way to anger, to outrage. This was not fucking fair! You've been through too much shit to die like this.  "No! I'm not putting up with this horseshit anymore!"

"Wait, listen..." Death begins but you cut him off, screaming at him and making him flinch as you rant.

"No you fucking listen! I have been through hell and back again, I have seen horrors you cannot even begin to imagine, I faced down an un-fucking-stoppable demon, and went through trial after trial while I watched my friends die one-by-one all so I could make this fucking universe. And don't even get me started on the shit I went through in this life! I'm the daughter of Spades fucking Slick, that should tell you something! I have god damn earned my fucking life and I will not fucking give it up because some nook-sucking-asshole thinks that I look better with a fucking hole in my chest!"

"Miss..." Death began, but was immediately cut off when you seize the front if his black robes, bellowing in his face with a look that could rival Spades Fucking Slick.

"SO YOU ARE GOING TO FUCKING LET ME GO BACK TO LIFE OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL BEAT THE EVER-LOVING SHIT OUT OF YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!"

"Wait!" 

You reel back your fist, getting ready to actually  _punch Death_ , when all of the sudden you're on your ass. You're sitting in front of a small table, sitting on a small red pillow while Death sat across from you, pouring a cup of tea. 

"What the fuh...!?" You start incredulously, wondering what the hell just happened when this time Death cut you off.

"Have some tea, please."

"I..." You begin, but he presses the cup into your hands.

"I insist."

His tone wasn't that stern, actually it wasn't even really firm. Something about his tone though made your non-existent blood run cold, and you felt compelled to do as he asked.

The tea is...really, really good actually. You're not really fond of tea in the first place, so that's really saying something. You take another gulp and start to calm down, fully starting to realize how stupid you were being just a second ago. Seriously, where you just about to attack  _DEATH_?! That was probably the stupidest idea you'd ever heard, and you live with Spades Slick, so you're very familiar with stupid ideas.

*lived

"Now that you've effectively calmed down." Death said slowly. "I was actually about to talk about that, Miss. Vantas. Or, would you prefer me to call you Mr. Vantas?"

Welp.

So much for trying to calm you down.

You inhale part of the tea in your shock, and naturally you choke on it and spew it back out.

"Oh yes, I am well aware of your previous form." Death said, ignoring the fact that you've just drenched him with...oh. Wait. There's...nothing on him. Actually there's nothing on the table either, and your teacup is nearly full again without him even pouring you more. 

Okay.

Weird.

Moving on.

"I lost count of how many alternate timeline you's I've escorted into the afterlife." Death continued, taking a sip from his tea. "I've watched your entire session, and I've seen what you've been through. To get to the point...you're right."

...

...huh?

"You  _have_  earned your life." Death said. "You have also earned your peace. So, I am going to give you a choice."

Two doors suddenly appear right behind Death.

"If you go through the door on your left, you will go to the afterlife. You will have your eternal rest free of life's worries and pains. If you go through the door on the right, you will wake up back in the living world. I'll even mend your body enough so that you'll be able to survive long enough to get the medical attention you need."

You wait. You can feel the 'but' coming, the catch, the price of your life.

"Well?" Death inquired after a bit.

You blink at him incredulously.

"Wait. You mean that's  _it_?"

"Were you expecting more?"

"I was expecting a  _catch_!" You exclaim, rising to your feet. You have expect to find yourself back on the pillow, but Death lets you pace while he watches from his seat. "I was expecting a  _price_! You mean you're just going to  _let_ me defy the laws of nature and  _come back from the dead_ without a single catch?!"

"Yes."

"WHY!?"

Death finishes his cup and sets it down. His blank black eyes meet yours and for a moment you're frozen. For the second time in the past half hour you realize that you're mouthing off at Death himself. This is the angel of death, he could send you to the farthest pits of hell if he wanted to, or he could end your very existence right then and there.

"As I've already said." He says taking his scythe and getting up. "I've lost track of how many alternate-you's I've escorted into the afterlife. Each one had the same increasingly miserable and sad story to tell. Each one was plagued by their mistakes, by their faults, by the deaths and sufferings of their comrades. I guess you could say I'm tired. I'm tired of the tears, of the guilt and misery."

He...doesn't sound aggitated. He sounds...pitying. You stare at him as he sets a boney hand on your shoulder.

"Just once I'd like to see a you that's old, a you that's lived a long and full life and has no regrets before leaving to the afterlife." He says kindly, and he wipes away the tears you didn't realize were trailing down your cheeks as you stare up at him. "So, I guess that's your catch. I don't want to see you here again until you're an old lady with no regrets."

You smile. You actually smile, it's not often that you smile at anyone except for your closest friends. You don't trust yourself to speak, so you just nod before turning towards the door conveniently marked with the symbol for Life. You seize the door handle and don't hesitate to swing the door open, blinded by light as everything disappears into darkness.

**Wake up**

You wake up with a start, gasping like a drowning man while everyone around you shout and gasp. You don't hear them as you clutch at the closest thing to you, which is your boyfriend. You shudder and start to sob, and you don't even know or care why. You don't care of you're in agony, you don't care that you're the only one that remembers the Game. You don't care that Terezi is a Tereni now, or that she's a he now and doesn't remember what you had before. You don't care that you were a boy before, or that you'll always have nightmares about the game for the rest of your life. 

You are alive.

You are ALIVE!


End file.
